PRESEN.T AND FUTURE OF IRRIGATION. 25 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF IRRIGATION IN CALIFORNIA. 



It is well to understand at the outset just what irrigation is doing for 

 California and what it can be made to do; how much of the State's pros- 

 perity now comes from it and to what extent it will promote future growth. 

 In the States wholly arid this is a si-mple matter, because there is a clearly 

 drawn line which separates the valuable cultivated land from the worthless 

 desert, and the difference between the two is wholly due to in-igation. In 

 much of Cahfornia this is not the case. A farmer may irrigate his garden 

 and leave his wheat field to the rain. The foi-est of windmills around 

 Stockton marks the region of mai-ket gardens; beyond these the land is still 

 cultivated, but it is watered, if at all, from the clouds and not by in-igation. 

 On the road from Sacramento to Folsom one passes a constant succession 

 of vineyards and orchards, some irrigated, some not, yet both appear 

 flourishing. In the Santa Clara Valley irrigation did not precede the 

 planting of orchards, but is now slowly being adopted as they come into 

 full bearing. Nevertheless, no State has gained more from the use of rivers 

 in irrigation than California or has more at stake in the extension of this 

 use. The following facts show only in part the reasons for this : 



IRRIGATION IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



In order to realize what irrigation has accomplished in California one 

 must go to the southern part of the State where land, not worth 85 an acre 

 in its original condition, has sold when iirigated and planted to orange trees 

 for Si, 700 an acre; where valleys, which were originally deserts or sand 

 and cactus, producing nothing more valuable than stunted grass, and where 

 a whole township would not keep a settler and his family from starving to 

 death if compelled to cultivate it in its natural state, have been transformed 

 into the highest priced and most productive agricultural lands in this coun- 

 trv; where water, which formerly ran unused to the ocean, is worth for 

 irrigation alone 10 cents per 1,000 gallons; where 83.50 an inch, and 40 

 cents an inch extra for its carriage, was paid last year for a twenty-four 

 hours' flow. So valuable is water that 850,000 was recently paid for a per- 

 petual right to 50 inches. This was at wholesale; in small quantities it has 

 sold for more money. The water used last year in the irrigation of 10 

 acres of orange land cost more than would be required to purchase an equal 

 acreage of the best farming lands of Iowa. 



Before streams were diverted and used by irrigators they had no 

 value, and the land on their margin had little. Since this use began the 

 citrus-fruit lands of southern California have brought net annual returns of 

 8200 to 8450 an acre, and this year's crop will be worth approximately 



